Here in Yautepec a team including the director John Huston, the veteran cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa and actors Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset and Anthony Andrews are recreating the story, set in Mexico in the late thirties, while the world outside was falling apart.

Long admired for its blend of rich symbolism, humanitarianism, humor and profound melancholy, it has defeated many a filmmaker since its publication in 1974. Only a partial list of those who've tried and failed to make it work for the screen would include the directors Luis Bunuel, Jules Dassin and Joseph Losey; and the authors Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Ronald Harewood. Richard Burton, Jack Nicholson and the late Robert Shaw are among the actors who wanted to play the consul.

For Jacqueline Bisset, playing the consul's long-suffering wife, it is a chance to redeem herself after a series of expensive and exploitative flops, to prove that underneath the beauty and flip intelligence of this international star there really is an actress.